Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 414 - 412: Five Years of Time

Chapter 414: Chapter 412: Five Years of Time

When it comes to the philosophy of survival, no one can provide a definitive explanation. Some people found great happiness in conducting scientific research, solving world challenges brought far more joy than anything else, to the extent that they’d forget about sleeping and everything else.

Some people felt happy simply by eating delicious food, especially the rare, expensive food cloned in sterile labs from alien species. This same group of people worked primarily to eat more of this alien food, though it wasn’t necessarily tasty.

Still others found happiness in piloting spaceships or mining, some just loved the sight of ore being smelted into molten iron...

It’s hard to rank these different forms of happiness.

Zhang Yuan also felt that humanity shouldn’t evolve into a civilization solely for the purpose of studying Nature. Humanities should also prosper, including music, gaming, movies, and other sectors.

"If everything in life is for studying Science, then such a life seems quite boring. For many people, isn’t scientific research also a form of entertainment? This essentially is the driving force of our own development, which we temporarily cannot define as either good or bad."

Ye Junchang continued, "Yes, this exactly represents our challenge. Perhaps our intelligence is too low to see through this dense fog."

"...And one more thing, the frailty of the human body prevents us from even setting foot on planets with slightly higher gravity, undeniably diminishing our desire to explore the stars. Humans, without a space suit and exposed to the Universe, would die quickly, instilling an inherent fear of the cosmos."

"However, in the Milky Way, there are countless planets larger than this one."

"In Kunlun society, people long to travel to this planet... yet everyone knows that in such a gravitational environment, humans couldn’t possibly survive."

"If the Taipu people were to truly venture into space, they would be able to land on many more planets."

Adapting from high gravity environments to low gravity ones is not too challenging.

But organisms from low gravity environments struggle to adapt to high gravity environments.

Zhang Yuan nodded and exclaimed, "Yes, you are all correct."

"So, the next step for humanity must inevitably involve self-evolution through technology. There are two paths for this: the first is genetic modification, and the second is bionic mechanical transformation."

"Genetic modification is excessively difficult, akin to creating a new species, which is currently impossible. Thus, the latter path, bionic transformation, has a higher probability of success in the future."

After such prolonged development, the public is no longer unfamiliar with bionic technology; replacing malfunctioning body parts with bionic ones has become natural.

At least, humanity no longer dismisses this technology. No one derogates bionic organs in favor of natural ones anymore, and thanks to many researchers’ efforts, bionic organs can even function better than natural ones.

On another note, the development of brain-assist chips could theoretically enhance Memory, making everyone look forward to this technology with anticipation.

So, what’s next?

Zhang Yuan looked toward the horizon and murmured, "Over the next hundreds, thousands of years, the integration of humans and machines will gradually become an inevitable trend. Our other technological developments have already slowed significantly, the war-driven gains nearly exhausted. Only in this field do we see significant potential for growth."

"People’s desire for self-modification will grow stronger with each trip. Otherwise, landing on a planet with 1.5 times Earth’s gravity—a situation equivalent to each person walking with an extra 60 pounds—would already be too exhausting... And at twice the gravity, it would likely crush a person."

Humans had always been searching for directions in which they could continue to develop. Encountering a bottleneck in a civilization wasn’t terrible, but lacking a direction for development was the scariest part.

At present, there were many potential directions for development, but most paths didn’t seem to hold a promising future.

The first was the research into Super-Magnetic A subatomic materials, a path that any third-level civilization must take. However, from a theoretical perspective, there were many gaps, and humans could only imitate the materials based on the Badit people’s data, without being able to invent new materials.

Therefore, until the theory was supplemented, progress in subatomic science was difficult. Only the emergence of an exceptional genius could significantly advance this discipline.

Because of this, even though the Sea Swallow - IV and Yingsun IV Spaceship were models from a century ago, they were still advanced by current standards.

How could an exceptional genius arise?

Either through the accumulation of time, slowly waiting, or through bionic technologies to enhance the entire civilization’s Intelligence.

The second path was the field of artificial intelligence.

Various self-learning robots and neural network intelligences had almost exhausted their potential, with very little room for upgrades. They also depended on brand-new theories and algorithms for breakthroughs.

With strong artificial intelligence, people were still much in the dark.

There was also the virtual world inside the Pangu Brain; humans only had a vague understanding and were in a bewildered state... These virtual epochs had evolved to a complexity that was difficult to comprehend.

So, if humans still wanted to progress, they could only improve themselves through bionic means, whether it was enhancing the body or Intelligence, which was a major trend for the future. As long as humans explored enough planets, with enough intelligent biological specimens for experimental research, they would ultimately find a breakthrough.

How to adapt to the trends of the times, how to guide human self-improvement, became the main task for leaders of the next few generations.

Regarding these issues, Zhang Yuan didn’t have any particularly good suggestions; he only offered a general direction.

Since technological development itself was unpredictable, perhaps a significant breakthrough might occur in an instant, in a certain field. All policies should be based on such breakthroughs and be realistic, rather than setting them in stone now.

After chatting briefly, with thoughts in their minds, everyone returned to the cabin to begin the next batch of work handovers...

...

Five years quickly passed.

For the Taipu Civilization, these years represented the fastest development period, with several major countries competing to develop satellites. The international situation was unusually peaceful, and even the usual minor conflicts were suppressed by the major countries.

However, for the ordinary civilians on Taipu Star, life remained as calm as before. Even though satellites had been launched, applying them from military to civil engineering might still take several years.

At the same time, the most powerful countries on this planet, with their unique industrial systems, exchanged high-speed railway technology suitable for harsh environments with humans.

This was a very practical technology that could extend the railway to that plateau, solving some transportation issues. With the satellites, they easily discovered mineral resource points in that plateau. The first phase of geological survey activities was in full swing.